Hang onto your hats, we’re about to jump back into your 2022 comic industry predictions…you can see Part One here, and if you want to submit your own predictions for 2023, you can do that here!
“1. George Perez’s diagnosis will lead to movement to get comic book creators healthcare for their golden years. It might actually make some headway.”
If there was one, I haven’t seen it, but like I said in Part One of this coverage, I don’t see everything that’s going on, so it’s possible I missed it. But given that well-established comic creatives like Peter David have to do a GoFundMe for recent health issues, I’m inclined to say not much has changed for folks in the U.S.
“2. There will be hints in films dropped of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe crossing over at some point. These will be inside jokes but might lead to something.”
Again, like I mentioned last time, there were DC hero namedrops in Eternals, which, granted, was a 2021 movie, but still. As far as I know, they haven’t done much more along those lines. A quick Google search reveals an alarming number of sites claiming that a DC/Marvel crossover movie is “possible.” Here’s a sample, but I’m going to suggest take any such reports with a giant grain of salt.
My guess, for this to happen at all, it would have to be like what happened in the ’90s when the comic market collapsed and Marvel and DC (and others) started doing crossover events to attract readers. When/if the superhero movie market starts failing, that may be the only time it’s vaguely possible such celluloid interaction could happen. But when you think of it as “Disney teaming up with Warner Bros.” that might put it in a slightly different perspective.
“3. A TV Series not adapted from the Big Two will become a “WALKING DEAD’ like cultural phenomenon.”
While there are quite a few comic-to-TV adaptations not from the Big Two, I don’t know if any have approached The Walking Dead when it was at its peak. Unless, like, Squid Games was based on a comic or something. Or was that 2021? Invincible was 2021, too, I think. The Boys? I don’t know. I think I’m gonna say Chainsaw Man, because what the heck.
“And I know you said only three but…
4. Mike Sterling will have a year free of health problems and continue to entertain his fans with his wit and humor.”
Well, I still haven’t got COVID, my eyeballs have been hanging together, and aside from a Christmas migraine, I’ve been okay. Now whether I’ve entertained with whatever I have that passed for “wit” and “humor,” that’s for you to judge.
• • •
Chris Gumprich cashes in the following
“1. Archie Comics realizes the true gold is in the pre-1990 comics and the digest reprints will exclusively focus on those.”
Archie’s focus seems to be 1) themed (like all-ages holiday or slightly edgier horror) one-shots, and 2) digests, which still seem to be a mix of newer material and a little of the older stuff from what I’ve seen. I imagine if you dig too deep, you start getting to the slightly racier stuff, and start getting cultural references in stories that today’s kids wouldn’t get. I mean, even that one story where they recolored a vinyl album into, apparently, a large compact disc, and redialogued the relevant balloons, wouldn’t quite fly now. “What’s a compact disc?” But then, kids might be able to relate better to vinyl, come to think of it.
“2. Matt Wagner announces he’s working on MAGE IV. No one believes him.”
I’d believe him. If he did it. Which he didn’t. But I’m still up for The Hero Disco-Dances whenever he gets around to it.
“3. DC relaunches a classic beloved character into their own series, then cancels it by issue 8.”
Well, there was the Aquamen series, which appears to have ended with #6, though I’m not sure if that was intended to be a mini-series or not. But then, a comic writer (was it Steven Grant?) recently said that pretty much everything is treated as a “mini-series” by default now, which I guess is probably self-evident by lifespans of books at the Big Two. Anyway, I’m seeing stories out there claiming “AQUAMEN CANCELLED” so I guess it was intended to go over six issues, maybe? I presume Aquaman still counts as “beloved.”
• • •
John Lancaster casts these in
“1. Friendly Frank’s will rise from the ashes to be the next competitor to Diamond’s comic book distribution.”
Might as well…more the merrier.
“2. Arnim Zola will finally be given his due and be made into a major villain, only to be ruined by the current crop of young writers that don’t understand Jack Kirby at all.”
Haven’t seen him too much this past year, but frankly I’d rather Marvel focus on him than Kang.
“3. Dial H for Hero will inexplicably become the next worldwide phenomenon…for about a week. Sockamagee!”
Oh, I wouldn’t say “inexplicably” if that happened, the premise (original and the ’80s revival) feels like it would be great for a TV show or cartoon. If it didn’t get called out as a Ben 10 rip-off, that is.
• • •
Daniel, who I hope is still reading, had this to say
“Marvel announces their own version of DC Fandome, which is effectively the beginning of the end of San Diego Comic-Con as the mega media convention it has become in the last 20 or 25 years (and will likely lead to it becoming the smaller version of itself that it was in the 1980s).”
With DC not doing a Fandome last year, it would have been a good time for Marvel to step up and fill that void. SDCC still does appear to be going strong, though. I don’t know what would unseat the San Diego show at this point, beyond a backlash against comics that drives down the show’s popularity and reduces its value to the city’s economy.
But speaking of Marvel conventions, have you seen this?
“2. Jonathan Hickman will write at least part of one X-book after Inferno #4. It might just be a one-shot or collaborating on a key story.”
There was X-Men Unlimited: Latitude #1, released in March of last year, written by Mr. Hickman! My search also apparently turned up his name being attached to the late-in-the-year release X-Men Annual #1 (#1? honestly), but far as I can tell it’s only credited to another writer. What am I missing? I don’t have a copy right in front of me to check.
“3. Al Ewing writes a DC book.”
Not yet, but he has his own page on DC.Com…only one credit there so far (the 2012 anthology Ghosts, but there’s always room for more!
• • •
Shannon Smith forges this
“Comics with codes to redeem for credit towards NFTs and crypto. Satan laughing spreads his wings.”
Ew, gross, I didn’t see any but I bet someone must have. I’m going to consider myself lucky that I didn’t in case any are out there.
• • •
demoncat_4 hopefully will never change with
“1 dc will get its film act together with the first being a swamp thing film directed by del toro”
Sadly, not yet, but here’s hoping that’s part of James Gunn’s plans.
“2 dc will also try again for a swamp thing tv series and it will last long enough to finaly have the constatine swamp thing team up in live action directed again by del toro.”
Also not yet, but from your lips to God’s ears, demoncat_4.
“3 disney will annouce they are doing a howard the duck tv series to be directed by kevin smith with jason mewes as dr. bong.”
Also also not yet, but you know what? I’d totally watch that. I know we’ll never have Steve Gerber writing our favorite duck ever again, so what the heck, let Smith have a shot. Anyway, I feel like Marvel Studios is slowly testing the waters for some kind of new Howard media thing, so some kind of TV (probably not a movie) isn’t ass impossible as it had been in the past.
“1. Realizing that have caught lightning in a bottle, MARVEL will make the Al Ewing/Javier Rodriguez DEFENDERS into an ongoing title. There will be much rejoicing and mindbending across comics fandom.”
We did get a second Defenders mini out of ’em, anyway. That ain’t nuthin’!
“2. In memoriam for the loss of a beloved creative titan, MARVEL and DC will publish a deluxe hardcover reissue of the JLA/AVENGERS crossover by Busiek and Perez. Proceeds will go to the https://www.heroinitiative.org/“
As noted last time, we did get a reprint but in softcover. Proceeds did indeed go the the Hero Initiative, however, so that was nice.
“3. 2022 sees the long-promised, long-delayed return of JUPITER. There will be a modest Indigogo campaign that leads to a growing grassroots readership, which organically builds as the years roll on. Mike Sterling gets comped a retailer box of the new JUPITER #1 and becomes the go-to West Coast retailer for JUPITER.”
I can’t help but htink you’re trying to promote Jupiter, by a certain Jason A Sandberg, available at this link or through the now-fixed sidebar ad on this site! Still waiting on that case of Jupiters, however.
• • •
Okay, that’s enough blood squeezed from a stone today…I’ll be back on Friday to continue the fun, so come back, set a spell, take a load off.
Okay, you’ve been dreading it all year…it’s time for me to look back at your 2022 comic book industry predictions and see how you all did! (And don’t forget to enter your predictions for 2023 before too much 2023 has gone by! Remember to put your predictions JUST in that last link…don’t leave ’em in the comments for this post!)
As always, I do not have the all-seeing eyes of Uatu the Watcher, so I may not have the knowledge or Google-fu necessary to validate or invalidate some of your prognostications. If you have info I do not, please feel free to jump in and I can issue a correction.
So let’s get this prediction party started!
Kurt, whom I have known since he was just a young, yet still bearded, lad, predicts thusly
“I only have the one prediction, and I truly hope it comes true.
“With the news about George Perez, a special release of JLA/Avengers hardcover will be published this year, with the proceeds going to the cancer charity of George’s choice.”
Well, it wasn’t a hardcover, but a limited edition paperback was released, benefiting the Hero Initiative which Pérez very much supported. One would hope the great demand for that reprint, which far outstripped its supply, would goose Marvel and DC a little into thinking maybe they should get that back into regular circulation, and as long as I’m wishing for that, I’ll also wish for a magical flying dog that speaks because that’d be cool to have, too.
Anyway, it’s still hard to believe George Pérez is no longer with us.
“1. People will proclaim that the comic book is dying. There will, nonetheless, be comic books through the end of the year.”
Gotta be honest, I haven’t been hanging out in the online places where that sort of talk gets bandied about, but given that it’s a perennial worry, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if folks were yakking about that as usual. A quick Googling shows that, yeah, sure, there was some shouting from both sides about “comics are thriving!” and “hoo boy goodbye comics” so, business as usual.
“2. Jim Lee will start drawing a miniseries. It will be very well drawn.”
No mini-series, but I bet if you took all the covers he drew over the past year, put ’em all together in one comic, and convince some poor bastard to somehow dialogue ‘n’ caption it into a story, you’d have a top seller.
“3. The split distribution market will bring back black-and-white issues as a force.”
I have seen a few more black and white titles pop up here and there, but now quite a patch on the wave of ’em we had in the ’80s. Interestingly, I am seeing some comics from, say, Lunar, that I’m not seeing distributed by Diamond. And yes, some of them are in black and white. Not many, but they’re there!
• • •
Turan skates on thin ice with
“1. Here, and at many other websites devoted to comics, there will be much discussion about what can be done to get people outside of the usual fanbase to read comics. At no point in any of these discussions will the name Raina Telgemeier be mentioned.
“2. Nor will the name Charlie Mackesy be mentioned. Or Rachel Smythe. Or Dav Pilkey. Or Alison Bechdel.”
I’m going to try to ignore the slight here and take this prediction, which really is just the one, at face value. First, I don’t talk a whole lot about expanding the market and getting new readers, beyond Free Comic Book Day blah blah that I usually do. But yes, you’re right, actual mass market comics successes like Raina et al. can get dismissed, oe or outright overlooked, by funnybook pundits as “not really comics” — by which they mean “not stapled magazines with flying people punching each other.”
I’m the last person to deny these comics giants and try to carry plenty of this material in my shop, in addition to the more traditional Marvel/DC and so on. Dog Boy, Plants Vs. Zombies, any Raina book…always consistent sellers for me. Though the trick with selling Raina’s books is that many kids who come into the store 1) already own ’em or 2) already checked ’em out from the library. But they still sell just fine.
“3. Prior to the release of each new Marvel movie in the coming year, there will be several people confidently predicting that this will finally be the one that flops. (At sites devoted to films, or to pop culture generally, these people will be wishing for an end to comics-based movies. At sites devoted to comics, these people will be wishing only for the Marvel movies to go away, so that the public will finally recognize the great genius of Zack Snyder.)”
I think I got the general sense that…yeah, this happened. Like Nat’s predication about people saying the comic industry is dying, the “superhero movie is over” people are always around now too. I think the movies are evolving, at least a little, to move away at least slightly from the usual formulas…but not too quickly. Marvel as a movie brand will likely not go away anytime soon…following the comics’ lead of making every movie more-or-less a chapter in the ongoing Marvel story is an insidious way to guarantee at least some measure of success for each release.
I can see this strategy getting tested as Marvel starts prepping the seeds and stems for cinematic shenanigans (“WUNDARR: THE MOVIE”) but by God they got people to see an Ant-Man movie, so I’m not giving them the 10-count yet.
And I haven’t seen the Snyder contingent braying too often lately, as I’m pretty sure I blocked most of them on Twitter, where they live. But I’m sure they’ll make their displeasure known as soon as James Gunn puts out a new DC movie that contains, say, a single joke.
• • •
Thom H hails us with
“1. DC will announce Tom King’s next 12-issue Black Label series: Scarecrow with Jae Lee.”
Almost there! As awesome as that would have been, instead we got Danger Street, a 12-issue Tom King Black Label series featuring…well, I wrote about it here.
“2. Marvel Studios will announce John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman in their new Fantastic Four movie.”
News stories as of December have John Krasinski saying that Marvel hasn’t talked to him about being in their 2025 Fantastic Four movie, despite having played the character in last year’s Doctor Strange movie. I haven’t seen many details about the film beyond the director apparently stating he wants the movie to reflect the comics accurately. Look, I’ll believe that as soon as I see Galactus and the Watcher looming over New York on-screen.
“3. Bendis’ Legion of Super-Heroes will return for one last brief run before disappearing once again.”
Well, we have that Justice League Vs. Legion of Super-Heroes mini with Bendis’ LSH, announced in 2021 and running six issues from mid-January to late September. I guess that sorta counts.
• • •
DK comes back from his holiday in Cambodia, starts stealing people’s mail, declares soup is good food, and prepares to lynch his landlord after saying to me
“It’s prediction time AGAIN? That went fast.”
Yeah, tell me about it.
“1. DC and Marvel will not re-issue JLA/Avengers in 2022.”
Well, at only 7000 copoies, that’s almost like not reissuing it….
“2. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will contain at least one big obvious DC Comics character as a parody/homage a la Squadron Supreme.”
I didn’t notice any, so there wasn’t any obvious one, I guess. A cursory scan of Google results doesn’t show any Easter-egg-esque hidden DC details either. I suspect lawyers on both sides are discouraging that sort of thing, beyond I suppose some dialogue references to Superman and Batman in Eternals. (Which apparently some people are taking as meaing those characters exist in the Marvel Universe, and c’mon son.)
“3. The X-Men will drop in sales and the characters will become less popular in 2022. There will be serious talk of a complete reboot.”
I haven’t found good information on their sales in my usual haunts, and Comichron doesn’t have their full end of the year reports up just yet. And Googling just brings up YouTube videos and gossip sites that wallow in any negative news they can find, so I can’t say for sure. From my retail end, sales have remained mostly consistent on the “main” X-Men titles in current continuity, like Red and Immortal and the main series. Spin-off or side stories (like Legends and Wolverine) have equally consistent, but lower, sales. Other X-titles barely register (like New Mutants and X-Force and such), and X-Treme X-Men was D.O.A.
So…I don’t know? Main titles are fine, the too-many-spinoffs-because-Marvel-forgets-history-and-is-doomed-etc. Haven’t heard serious talk of a restart/reboot yet. But give ’em time.
• • •
Daniel T putts in the following
“Mike Sterling will continue to blog. His series on variant comics will ALMOST be finished by the end of the year.”
I did continue to blog, much to everyone’s chagrin. And my variant cover-age continued, albeit at a much slower pace. Not sure if I’m circling a conclusion yet!
• • •
Patrick the Saint has the patience to tell me
“1) Tom Kings next 12 issue books will be My Greatest Adventure & Carrie Kelly”
People want more Tom King 12-issue series! He’s busy with Danger Street right now, but maybe afterwards he can do your idea. I’d totally read it.
“2) Since IDW has lost the all-ages line of Marvel- Marvel will begin licensing them out to Archie, which will put them in digest form and Marvel will be on a news-stand for the first time in over a decade.”
They did it once! …But it’s been a few years and I don’t see any more being offered up at the moment.
“3) Next big craze in variant covers: Taking a panel George Perez did and blowing it up to make a variant cover.”
There have been a few Pérez variants, but of the pin-up variety, no so much of the blown-up interior panel kind. If they ever do, I recommend taking them from this comic, regardless of title or company.
• • •
Okay, that’s enough of a start. ‘ll continue this Wednesday with even more of your predictions! Thanks for reading, pals, and we’ll see you then!
…about one of two different subjects, but the first one was going to be the first of a series, which was a problem as I’m starting the look back at your 2022 comic industry predictions next week. And the second one…turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought it would be at first glance, and I can’t really stay up ’til 3 AM getting it all puzzled out. So, those are for another day then!
But speaking of predictions, you do remember that I’m looking for YOUR 2023 comic industry predictions! Put ’em in this little chromium comments section here, so long as you mind the very important rules.
Thanks everyone…I know this wasn’t much of a post today, but you’ll be looking back on it fondly once I get crackin’ on the walls of text looking back at those older predictions. Gird whatever needs girding before then, and I’ll see you on Monday!
HOWEVER: I ask that you please follow the rules, to make life easier on me and on everyone else participating! I specifically asked that you not criticize other people’s predictions, but let’s not comment on them either…I went through and deleted a couple of responses that did so. Also, I don’t mind jokey submissions, as I can usually do something with those, but the rule of “3 per person” still applies!
Again, thanks for participating, and I look forward to covering them all in 2024!
“It can’t be that time already?” Oh yes indeedy it can! I am asking for your comic industry predictions for the year Two Thousand and Twenty-Three, so park your flying cars and put your giant mutated future-brains to work and get your predictions in by dumping them in this little ol’ comment section here.
All I ask, as I ask every time I’ve done this before, is to follow these simple rules! ESPECIALLY #4 PLEASE:
1. Don’t read the other predictions before entering your own.
2. Don’t criticize other people’s predictions.
3. Don’t predict any real person’s death.
4. Limit of three predictions per person! You don’t have to do that many if you don’t want, but don’t do more than that! Please, I’m begging you!
Much gratitude to you in advance for participating…it’s been a lot of fun (if a lot of hard work and typing!) the previous times I’ve done this, but it’s always enjoyable to see what we all expect from this weird business.
Thanks, and we’ll find out in January of 2024 how y’all did. And we’ll see next month how our 2022 predictions turned out!
So yes, I spent 1/12th of 2022 looking back at your 2021 comic industry predictions. Well, what can I tell you…you guys left me a lot last time. Anyway, today’s post will be catching upon on a few corrections/clarifications over my responses from the last (ahem) month, since I’m only mostly human and can’t catch every single thing that rolls down the road here. Look back at the previous installments (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight) and then let’s see what exactly I have to say for myself.
(I did edit in a correction into the body of the main post of part two, in regards to preliminary work on a Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon being announced, which I missed.)
• • •
From Part Three:
Here Daniel gives me a general explanation of the economics of streaming services. I mean, I figured it was something like that, but it’s nice to have it all spelled out.
Patrick Gaffney makes no mistake in saying
“There was a reprint of The New Warriors Omnibus in 2021, with a new Vol 2 coming in 2022. Maybe that hit the copyright needs of the above poster?”
…in reference to the suggestion that Marvel would put out a New Warriors issue maybe just for trademark purposes. Frankly, I think it would take a bit longer for New Warriors to get out from under Marvel’s control. But at least there was a New Warriors publication of some sort that got there.
• • •
From Post Four:
In reply to my not knowing about companies that put out a first issue then skipping to releasing the whole story in a collection, Glen came out of seclusion with
“Scout has an imprint called Nonstop that publishes a first issue and then a full ‘collection.'”
…and I took a look and sure ‘nough. I don’t see anything about the other “issues” being available digitally, which was a stipulation of the prediction, but hey, it’s close enough. (And I tried to edit that info into the original post at the time and messed it up, so here it is properly! And I fixed it in that post, too.)
• • •
From Part Six:
Billy boings on in with
“Who owns the Harvey properties now and why is that a thing?”
Harvey is now owned by Classic Media, though when I wrote my comment about Harvey’s owners probably wouldn’t want “adult” updated versions of their characters out there (like what DC did with Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbara) I somehow thought Harvey properties were still in control of someone from that Harvey family. Some properties, however, are still under the Harvey family purview, such as Sad Sack and Black Cat (as per Wikipedia). But the other characters…well, I still don’t think we’ll be seeing a deconstructive and lightly-edgy take on Stumbo the Giant anytime soon.
Also in this comments section was discussion over my statement that Marvel probably wouldn’t reprint Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey because that would involve licensing fees and stuff like that, since Marvel didn’t own it. There was some question as to who does actually own the rights to the film, which was under the MGM banner. This recent Forbes article, in short, says that Ted Turner bought the rights to a huge chunk of MGM library…which then fell under the Warner Bros. label when the two merged. As such…DC Comics is more likely to reprint that 2001 comic than Marvel. 2001 is currently streaming on HBO Max, in fact.
The rest of MGM’s catalog was just bought by Amazon, including the James Bond series, in case you were wondering where the rest of the studio went.
And in an email response to an omission from Part Six, where in talking about Legion of Super-Heroes reprints I forgot about the Before the Darkness HC Vol. 1, which not only came out in 2021, but I actually read the darned thing too.
Just slipped my dumb mind for some reason. Thanks to Paul for pointing this out.
• • •
From Part Seven:
Daniel (that dude again) asks
“[If comic books went away and trades/graphic novels took over] could most comic shops survive that change to what would essentially be a bookstore model?”
That’s a question folks in the biz have been wondering for years. Switching customers from visiting on a weekly basis to buy monthly-released comics over to…pricier formats released on a biannual or less frequent basis feels like quite the challenge. But a comic bookstore (versus a comic book store) would require more stock, and more diversity, to encourage more browsing and more buying….
I can’t go into every detail on this right this second, but I think if the change was gradual stores would probably be okay. If Marvel and DC said suddenly Scarlet Witch-style “no more floppies” that could be a problem.
Wayne Allen Sallee wonders
“did INFERIOR 5 finish the run? I thought COVID-19 killed it about 4 issues in, same with TERRIFICS, actually. The two month break and all.”
Both completed their runs in trade paperbacks, which included unpublished (at least in physical form) issues. I still need to finish reading Terrifics, in fact…that was a really good comic.
• • •
From Part Eight:
Matthew notes, in response to the prediction of a wisecracking kid version of John Constantine showing up
“We did get The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher: A Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel, so the ‘kid’ part of that came true at least.”
There you go! I meant to read this, but I’ll have to add it to the pile of approximately a million other things I need to read.
I boggle Daniel T’s mind with
“Have you really not read a Spider-Man comic in 20 years?”
I really do think that 9/11 issue was the last new Spidey-Sam comic I read from beginning to end. I’m just not a Spider-Man Comics guy, at least when it comes to recent stuff. I read all the McFarlane issues when they came out, and I actually had a subscription to the title around 1979, which was actually a replacement title when my Pizzazz subscription ended because that mag was cancelled.
Now I have read Spider-Man comics in the last 20 years, but mostly revisited the classic Lee/Ditko run, and I have a particular fondness for ’70s Spidey. But nothing going on in Spider-Man comics in the last couple of decades have been of any interest to me. Sorry, just Not My Thing, I guess.
And yes, in fairness to Chris V, the Big Wheel apparently has shown up in Iron Man, so he gets at least partial credit for his prediction of the return of this…whatever it is.
• • •
OKAY, IT’S FINALLY OVER…at least until next January, when I go over your predictions for this year! Thanks for reading, everyone, and we’ll see you Wednesday!
Phew! We’re almost done, honest! This post should wrap up the prediction coverage, then either Friday or, more likely, Monday, I’ll do one final installment going back over some corrections and additions an’ stuff. Also, sorry about no post on Wednesday, as the internet was out at the house Tuesday night and I wasn’t about to type all this out on my phone.
“I just realized we were supposed to only do three. Uh, any three you please, I guess.”
You’re lucky I’m such a pushover (and so close to the end here) and I’ll go ahead and do all six. BUT Y’ALL READIN’ THIS DON’T GET ANY IDEAS ABOUT ALSO DOING THIS
“1. The new power-that-be at DC will finally have some time to sort out what they inherited from Didio and we’ll start to hear announcements that will freak everyone out (continuity refactoring), but which are actually a good idea.”
I feel like the only real DiDio-esque thing we got was Generations, and the universe-altering aspects of that series were pretty much downplayed. We haven’t had any real Breaking the Internet in Half shockers from DC in the past year regarding any tomfoolery with their fictional milieu, aside from an attempt in some series or ‘nother at playing with the “every story happened” conclusion of Death Metal. Think we’re still working out, or at least trying to figure out, the full ramifications of that.
“2. DC will keep the monthly format, but also have in-continuity OGNs closer in format to those books published at younger readers.”
Monthly format, yes, the in-continuity graphic novels, not so much. DC used to do those on a fairly regular basis (there was that Flash: Life Story one, a Superman one, that Morrison JLA/Crime Syndicate one). There were original graphic novels, sure (like Batman: The World) but nothing really quite like what you’re describing, with OGNs supplementing the mainline continuity of the monthly books on a regular schedule.
“3. Marvel will change Spidey’s costume back just as the solicits for the new but mid-00’s looking outfit appears on action figures, statues, etc…”
Okay, here’s the thing. I’d completely forgotten Spider-Man had changed costumes. I never noticed on the covers. Literally made no impact on me. I have no clue if he’d changed or not. And it’s almost impossible to Google (hello, lots of references to No Way Home).
Anyway, had to Google and remind myself and yeah, I’m pretty sure that costume hasn’t appeared in or on anything. I mean, I did a quick search and didn’t spot it, but maybe one of you out there who’s been paying attention could let me know. And maybe Spidey’s been wearing the costume inside the comic and not on the cover? I have no idea. I’m pretty sure the last new Spidey comic I read was that weird 9/11 one.
“4. X-book sales fall precipitously once it becomes clear they painted themselves into a narrative corner and magical swords could not get them out”
If X-Men sales have fallen, it’s probably more because of that’s the usual cycle of X-books (if not all comics) now, where a relaunch gets some extra eyeballs, then that additional audience gives way to the folks who always read the title. I think we’re at the low end of the cycle now, as all the X-titles are petering away into nothing, though X-Men itself is still doing…okay, but even that had a restart with a new #1 so maybe the new car smell hasn’t worn off that book yet.
“5. Big build up for The Big Wheel as Marvel’s new Galactus-level threat”
I literally had no idea what this was referring to. Honestly, my first thought was this:
…but what you meant was this, not to be confused with this. Anyway, more interesting than Kang, so Marvel missed the boat here.
“6. Swamp Thing will be rebranded as a hip teen with a shock of green hair who rides a hoverboard and tells people to recycle, along with sidekick/ pal J-Con, a wise-cracking British kid with, I dunno, a nosering”
Well, a couple of years ago we had Swamp Kid, which was close but no tuber. So, nothing this good came out last year, I’m afraid to report.
“Late to the party, Mike. Hope your eyes stay great, my Big Wish for 2021.”
My eyes have been…mostly stable this year. At least no major surgery needed!
“1/DC will think out of the box for a change and give us a Swamp Thing/Mogo maxi-series. Black Label, of course, so it doesn’t end up like Space Cabbie.”
Well, I gotta be honest, I haven’t read Swamp Thing: Green Hell #1 yet, so maybe Mogo’s in there!
“2/DC will continue to exist as a comic company.”
Like my eyeballs, still hanging in there.
“3/When Wayne buys Sterling Silver’s Bunches of Back Issues to help the economy, owner Mike Sterling will stop including copies of CYBER FORCE#2.”
Sorry, one of these must be included with every mail order purchase. Look, California has weird laws, what can I say.
• • •
Existentialman exists only to produce the following
“1) Marvel will begin introducing the Aliens and Predator IP into their super-hero continuity by April.”
Well, aside from variant covers (of course) where the Aliens faced off with, I don’t know, Power Pack, they’ve remained out of the actual Marvel Universe proper. I mean, the Brood Vs. Aliens? C’mon, it needs to happen. And Predator, of course, was a non-starter last year due to legal issues (though may be on the way now).
“2) Marvel will choose not to retire/cancel the Punisher character. Instead, they will release a story arc where he unflinchingly fights against white supremacists and racial hatred.”
I believe Marvel did have a story where the Punisher rejects the appropriation of his symbol by other parties, but that was a couple of years back. I haven’t read much Punisher of late, but aside from his general disdain for all racists, I don’t know that a story explicitly addressing these issues was done. I do know Marvel’s address this topic, as previously noted in these prediction response posts, by changing his logo to something that might as well have an expiration date on it for how long it’s gonna last outside that series.
“3) Mike Sterling will continue to bring us joy in 2021 through his kind, patient, fantastic sense of humor and insight into the human condition”
Why would I start now?
• • •
Daniel depresses me with
“‘Mazing Man: The Absolute Edition”
One of these days, ‘Mazing Man mania will spread across this country and a beautiful publication like this will see the light of day. Ah, a thing to dream of.
• • •
Damien has a bad omen with
“1. DC will relaunch the Showcase Presents line so that they can finally publish the Sugar and Spike collection and make all the money.”
I’d love to have Sugar & Spike back in any print format. I’d accept Sugar & Spike napkins at this point.
“2. There will be a big change in the management structure at Marvel with a surprise hire as Creative Director. Maybe a return to Marvel for Jim Lee or Brian Michael Bendis.”
I don’t think anything like this happened this year. At least, nothing quite so drastic as DC’s changes.
“3. A major comics feud will end when Alan Moore and Grant Morrison9 get married. They will claim that the ghosts of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby were their bridesmaids but no one will believe them.”
We must never let them join forces. The danger to this world caused by the partnership of these wizards is unfathomable.
• • •
And BRRR puts all this nonsense on ice with
“1) Marvel will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first appearance of Deadpool with a six issue limited series. Each issue will have 30 variant covers.”
Given the date of your prediction is January 18th, 2021, and this news story about a Deadpool one-shot and 30 variant covers is in December of 2020, I think maybe you’re were being a little facetious. Anyway, those 30 variants…um, wore out their welcome right quick.
OKAY WE’RE DONE. Come back…yeah, probably Monday, and I’ll take a look at your comments and corrections. Thanks for reading as always, pals!
So you know the drill by now: I’m looking at your 2021 comic predictions that you posted here, and the previous installments of this series can be found here: one, two, three, four, five, and six.
And I know I have a response or two that should be addressed…I’ll get to them soon enough. Probably Friday, for an “epilogue” post.
Now, let’s jump in and see what we’ve got for this round!
“1. The comics division of Marvel will see cutbacks…not to the extent of DC’s current travails, but Disney’s gonna put the partial-kibosh on the publishing line.”
Not anything quite as drastic as this has happened, to my knowledge. At least, not any kind of sign that Disney has stepped in and said “OKAY, ENOUGH OF THAT” on anything. I suppose this could be extended to the ending of the Marvel Action line over at IDW, but even that’s not quite the behind-the-scenes bloodbath DC endured.
“2. We’re gonna find out who Olivia Jaimes, the pseudonymous cartoonist of the Nancy comic strip, really is.”
Did not happen, but I figure it will sooner or later. (Olivia Jaimes rips off the mask – “ah HA, it is I, Bill Watterson!”)
“3. A significant portion of DC’s comics line will switch over to a thicker, more expensive (but still comic-sized, not like Black Label album-sized) format. Like, $5.99 for 48 pages will be the norm, rather than reserved for specials and one-shots. Not everything, we’ll still have $3.99 books. But the cheaper format will clearly be on the way out.”
Well, it’s hard to say “yay” or “nay” to this one, and it all feels like it’s still in transition. Yes, a LOT of books are being released with higher price points, but $3.99 comics are still a thing. To be fair, this was already sort of happening when I initially made the prediction, but I haven’t seen too significant a shift in balance re: pricing yet that’s much different from before. A few more $5.99 books, maybe.
The trick is noting when the extra qualities of the higher-priced books (like page count and paper stock) start getting scaled back to what would be today’s $3.99 format, but keeping the $4.99 and up price points.
Okay, depressing myself, let’s move on.
• • •
Bully, The Bull That Walks Like A Stuffed Man, horns in with
“Once again I predict that this year, comics shall be printed on delicious deli ham.”
Friend Bully, I’m pleased to report that the comic strip Heathcliff is doing the Lord’s work and continuing to print comics on and about ham, such as this example from early last year:
…Now you probably meant actually physically printed on ham instead of paper. I bet if anyone’s going to do it, it’s Heathcliff.
“Also: one or more DC 12-issue limited series will be abandoned by the publisher mid-series.”
I know Nice House on the Lake had a mid-series break, but that was planned, not due to sales. I can’t think of any, though I’m surprised The Batman’s Grave made it to the end. If I’m missing something, let me know.
• • •
Kirk beams in these
“1 – Archie will cease publishing their own books.”
Archie is still hanging in there! It feels like they’re mostly doing digests, collections, and an entry or two in their horror line, but there’s still the occasional standard comic book (usually a holiday special of some sort).
“2 – Another new distributor will appear to battle Diamond & whoever the others are”
Well, Penguin Random House ain’t new but they certain shook things up a bit by becoming Marvel’s main inroad to the direct market. I can’t believe that was just last year.
“3 – Jim Lee will leave DC as they change their publishing strategy. Fewer comics, more prestige books “
Jim Lee’s still hangin’ on there, as are plain ol’ funnybooks! But I feel like more higher-end books will be in DC’s future.
• • •
Raymond Zinsius gets right zin there with
“I predict that DC Comics will fold entirely.”
Boy, people sure have it in for DC Comics! It was an easy target given the slashing of the publishing line and the cutting of employees, but it’s still floatin’ along there. “I DON’T WANT TO GO ON THE CART,” DC weakly exclaims.
“1. A whole slew of new titles will be announced, each promising to be the next big thing.”
Well, it’s a typical thing for new comics to be announced all the time. And very few of them start off with “oh, I guess we’re okay, maybe you’ll like us.”
“2. 92% of said titles will fizzle out by the third issue, becoming nothing more than footnotes in comics history, relegated to quarter bins for all eternity.”
I can’t say to the percentage, but in my experience, unless it’s a huge hit, sales on most comics tend to settle down by about the third issue or so (usually because by then the retailer’s figured out the actual demand for the book). As far as outright “fizzling” — I did have a few new titles debuting over the last year that were not-starters, with no interest from my customers from the get-go. And a couple of others that may have started big, but were mostly bought by speculators who didn’t want any issues past the first one.
I’m trying to put an actual number to the percentage, and…well, there are a lot of comics, aren’t there. I’d say roughly about half of debuting series kept a readership of some sort as the series continued, and maybe half were D.O.A. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I think that’s more or less right.
“3. A lack of consistent updates regarding the Fantastic Four movie leads to the CW commissioning a Terrifics series set in the Arrowverse. Nevermind the fact that Simon Stagg was killed off in a very early episode of The Flash.”
I remember them killing off Stagg, and I was like “that’s not just a name of some random character you can plug in for verisimilitude.” That’s, like, an actual character with a position in the DCU.
Anyway, no Terrifics TV show, which is too bad because that would have been hilarious.
• • •
Ray Cornwall pops over the fence with
“1. Something drastic will happen at IDW- either a closure or a takeover. There’s a lot of smoke there. I’m not rooting for this, especially since I love the reprintings of old newspaper comics, and I hate to see any comics employees lose their jobs.”
Not sure if this is the sort of thing you’re thinking of, but IDW did announce it was following Marvel to Penguin Random House for exclusive distribution. Like I said in that post I wrote discussing Marvel’s move, IDW had a presence at PRH already, which likely smoothed over the transition. Wondering which company already with a PRH deal will be next?
“2. DC will launch a new digital comics platform just for their comics, separate from Comixology. There will be some comic that is exclusive to the platform.”
I mean, DC is still doing DC Universe Infinite for their online backlog for both print and digital, but otherwise they appear content to let Comixology handle the comic sales. I mean, as far as I know, I’m not much of a “buying digital” comics guy.
“3. We will see new Miracleman comics. We will not see new Saga comics.”
Mentioning once again Timeless, in just under the wire during the last week of December. A certain MM (no, not Mickey Mouse) has his logo appear…so not the big guy himself, but closer than we had been.
And Saga waited ’til this year to come back.
Okay, we’ll wrap up the 2021 predictions next time, and ’til then put in your predictions for 2022 already.
“1) As always, I’ll include a hopeful Legion prediction: I expect that the Legion of Superheroes title will continue after Future State, and Brian Bendis will continue to write the series through at least issue 20 (which would bring his run to 24 issues, with Future State and Millennium included).”
Well…there’s a continuation of sorts, with the Justice League/LSH crossover event by Bendis. Whether there’ll be more Legion after that, I don’t know.
“2) Kirkman and Samnee’s Fire Power gets a TV series deal at Disney+.”
No news I’ve been able to find that it’s been optioned for anything, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t. Didn’t stop some gossip site I found from pushing the idea that folks should be investing in copies should a TV show eventually materialize.
“3) There’s an attempt to resurrect some Harvey properties in the same vein as DC’s Hanna Barbera line a few years ago. Mark Russell is tapped to write Hot Stuff. Gail Simone writes Richie Rich.”
This would have been awesome, but I imagine the owner of the IP would probably be appalled. “What…our characters, modernized and interesting? FORGET IT! More retro merch instead, please!”
• • •
Voord 99 confounds my ability to crack wise about his name with
“After the hilarious disaster of my predictions last year, I’m just going with:”
Okay, Voord, lay it on me.
“1. A film will be released in some way.”
Movies were certainly released in some way, with an increased reliance on simultaneous streaming-and-in-theaters releases, and not without the occasional issue. The success of the new Spider-Man movie’s theater-only release may have brought us back to something resembling a regular movie-going experience, if it weren’t for…
“2. We will tell ourselves that something cannot possibly get worse, and it will.”
…oh, hello Omnicron variant.
“3. Following the pandemic, we have a second Roaring Twenties, with a resurgence of flappers, radio serials, and jazz. Superhero comics desperately try to hold on until 2038.”
So I put a rumble seat in my Hyundai Tuscon for nothing?
• • •
Adam Farrar goes the distance with
“1. Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #1 is released. Is there a sunk-cost fallacy to these predictions? I’ve been pulling for this for so long that I’d hate to drop it and then it actually happens. 2021 shows a lot of promise and maybe it even delivers this! Just one issue. Not all six issues. Not even new content.”
Couldn’t even manage just one reprint issue, alas. But as I’ve been saying throughout this batch of prediction coverage posts, that Timeless one-shot, while not the continuation of Miracleman we’re all waiting for, at least hinted at some new MM content on its way. (I’m betting it’ll be Marvelman, keeping the character distinct from the self-contained Miracleman story.)
“2. Some new Astro City is released. It will be through a new publisher which also starts reprinting the earlier volumes, maybe even in a new format.”
It’s beginning, away. It’s back at Image, and in December they took orders for a paperback reprinting the early issues. So stuff is happening!
“3. The new Spider-Man movie will include a connection to Into the Spider-Verse with cartoon Miles Morales appearing.”
I haven’t seen the movie yet (specifically because I’m not going back to theaters anytime soon) so I don’t know if there was a Miles Morales reference at all, cartoon or not. Apparently there was an oblique reference to Miles, if not by name, in Homecoming.
• • •
DavidG weighs us down with
“1. LSH will be cancelled again, in a new record for shortest run. DC will continue to reprint the Silver Age stuff, because there is still a demand for the zero personality Legion I guess.”
The series itself looks like it’s done, unlesss they pick up again after the Justice League crossover this year. It does look like they’re keeping some of the Silver Age reprint stuff in print, though the only new reprint book this year was a hardcover version of the 1970s treasury edition. …And I like the Silver Age Legion! I mean, it took a 13-year-old Jim Shooter to come in and give ’em personalities, but that was still technically the Silver Age!
“2. Still no new Miracleman. Gaiman will now start denying that he has ever heard of the character.”
Again, we got a peek in Timeless, but it’s likely leading to a Marvel Universe-friendly version and not the Moore/Gaiman one. Pretty sure Gaiman’s not at the “deny everything” point yet!
“3. DC will finally pull the plug on floppies, figuring they have 80 years of content that they don’t know how to exploit anyway, so why deal with the hassle of creating more. Instead they will ramp up repackaging the stuff they have produced despite themselves, the largely continuity free stuff with an actual ending.”
The monthly comics endure, though sometimes it feels like DC is moving to the “all Batman, all the Bat-time” model. I hope the reprinting of old material continues, however…it’s always welcome.
“I couldn’t possible be more wrong than I was for my 2020 predictions, Right?”
“1) DC’s Kids & YA OGN line gets farmed out, in part or in whole, to one of the Warner book publishers imprints.”
DC’s still doin’ it, near as I can tell, though they appear to have other younger reader/children’s books through other publishers (not so much “farmed out” as just “licensed”).
“2) The threads of Event Leviathan are picked up in Bendis’s Justice League.”
DING DING DING I’m actually caught up on Justice League so I can confirm this as a very palpable hit.
“3) A manga title I’ve never heard of becomes a best seller due to an anime version I didn’t know existed showing up on a streaming platform.”
Um…this is a subjective one, so you tell me…had you ever heard of Demon Slayer?
• • •
will fires at me with
“1) a Black Orchid TV show”
Nope, but I’d certainly watch just to see what the hell they’d do with that.
“2) Disney will buy DC”
Oh man, can you imagine? A post-credits scene on, I don’t know, a fifth Ant Man movie introducing Superman?
• • •
Scott Rowland does…something to get the boat ashore with
“With the loss of yet more licensed properties to Marvel, Dark Horse will merge with another company in a ‘Kitchen Sink buys Tundra’ kind of way, which will involve a media push for the ‘Comics Greatest World’ Properties.”
Actually, it kinda moved in the opposite direction, with Dark Horse getting the license to the “general audiences” Star Wars comics (and if there’s a stupider phrase than “‘general audiences’ Star Wars comics,” man, I don’t know…). That may forestall a merger for at least the near future. Comics’ Greatest World remains largely unexploited in recent times, however.
“DC will continue to haphazardly add old comics to their digital service, but will continue to ignore Sugar and Spike.”
I’ll tell you what, I keep waiting for DC Universe to add more late ’70s/early ’80s Superman comics, but nuthin’ doin’. Still finding plenty to read, but I really want those. Also no go on those Sugar & Spike comics, because why clutter up the service with good stuff?
“Marvel will finally release the 2001 By Kirby Omnibus.”
A crime this hasn’t happened. And by all rights, the Omnibus dustjacket should be solid black. Also, it’s a licensed book, and Marvel ain’t gonna shell out to another company to reprint something.
Okay, enough for today, since the next set of predictions in line are from me and I may or may not spend some extra time on those. Yes, I’m playing favorites. In the meantime, get in your 2022 predictions, even though January is getting a little long in the tooth to still be accepting those and comments will likely be turned off soon. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you Monday!
Welcome to part five of about a thousand of my look back at your 2021 comic industry predictions! (Here are parts one, two, three and four). Also, I did drop in an edit to part four in regard to new information regarding a prediction I didn’t have an answer for!
And now…behold:
Michael Grabowski grips me with the following
“1. Riverdale of the Apes”
Look, Michael, how dare you throw this idea out there and have us proceed to deal with the fact it didn’t happen. Apehead! Archie Andrangutan! Reggie Mandrill!
“2. IDW hires Roger Langridge & Chris Samnee to finish their Thor: The Mighty Avenger series.”
That would have been interesting as part of the Marvel Action line, but alas, with that going away, I guess that’s that.
“3. DC hires Michel Fiffe to create a Grand Design-style limited series for the Legion of Superheroes.”
Another great idea which unfortunately didn’t happen (next “Grand Design” book will feature the Hulk). But honestly, DC could do worse. To paraphrase a thing I’ve said plenty of times: what’s DC afraid of, a Legion series that won’t sell?
• • •
Patrick Joseph sayeth
“1. Milestone’s relaunch gets pushed back another year/canceled.”
They actually did come out, and are still being released even now!
“2. Marvel acquires the license to the Hasbro books, and starts reprints of Micronauts and ROM”
Coincidentally, I was processing a certain issue of Incredible Hulk and brought up on the Twitters that Marvel couldn’t reprint this issue due to not having the license to ROM anymore. (As it turned out, Marvel has reprinted the issue, but with pages featuring ROM excised and replaced by a text explanation of what happened on them.)
Anyway, the one thing I wish the rights holders to ROM and Micronauts would realize is that the comics interest in these characters is centered around their connection to the Marvel Universe. Trying to feature the characters outside that context is…not really anything my customers ever wanted, that’s for sure. …So no, those two properties are still divided from the House of Licensed Ideas.
“3. DC goes all digital with periodicals, with collections and OGNs becoming their primary physical product.”
DCs still hanging in there, printin’ their funnybooks on dead trees, just like our primitive ancestors did!
• • •
Thom H shays
“1. Marvel will announce the wrap-up to Hickman’s big X-Men storyline by the end of the year.
Does anything really get wrapped up in the X-Men books? Hickman’s wrapping up his X-Men stint with that Inferno mini, which just ended. But I think the situation he set up is still going on even under the new creative team. I don’t pay a lot of attention to the X-books, so if Hickman had some big plot he was working on that did get wrapped up, I’m not sure. But like I said, the post-Hickman books appear to be of a piece with the work he did.
“2. I guess I can stop predicting the return of Injection at Image. The comic series and the show will both likely be announced as officially canceled.”
Yeaaaah, I wouldn’t look for any Ellis-related projects for the near future.
“3. One new issue of Miracleman is published in 2021.”
As discussed in a previous installment of these prediction posts…only if you count Timeless!
“1. Brian Michael Bendis will leave comics to pursue hollywood full time…and then return to Marvel in 3 years to a triumphant (in the Kirby sense of the word) return.”
I don’t know about his showbiz pursuits (though a commentor here mentioned he was working on a Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon). He does seem to be in the process of leaving DC…but not back to Marvel just yet.
“2. Dark Nights: Metal and Dark Nights: Death Metal will surprisingly be followed-up this year by Dark Night: Bluegrass…not so surprisingly, Dark Swamp-Thing plays a major role in the storyline.”
It did surprise me that DC didn’t market any new series playing off the “Metal” theme (aside from releasing some variant covers for the series packaged with flexidiscs). But I guess Infinite Frontier was the official follow-up, though they missed the bet by calling it Infinite Metal.
Also, Dark Night: Bluegrass sounds okay, but I’d be mnore into Dark Night: New Wave. At last, dayglo colors on comic book covers again!
“3. Dark Nights: Ambush Bug will debut in 2020 and actually get me to read my first Dark Nights”
I presume you meant “2021,” if only because I think you should get a half-point for Ambush Bug returning in a regular comic. This time it’s Suicide Squad, but who knows where he’ll end up next!
“My prediction: I will be part of a creative team on a bunch of indy comics that will be published with Diamond Catalog distribution in 2021 and Mike will reference me in an ‘End of Civilization’ post.”
And there he is! Now I have to start doing my End of Civilization posts again to make fun of it. “Frankenrock? More like…uh, Franken-dumber! Amirite?”
• • •
Cassandra Miller crosses the following
“DC’s distributor will continue to alternate between semi-professional and amateurish at best, with no rhyme or reason, driving shop owners nuts. Instead of rethinking things, DC will double down on the ‘going it alone without Diamond’ thing. (They won’t actually *do* anything about the situation until 2022 though.)”
I have to say, I’ve had very few problems with Lunar Distribution. Always great packing, excellent fill rates, almost never have to report a damage. I think since I’ve started using them, I’ve maybe been shorted all copies of a single title twice at most, as compared to that happening nearly every week with a certain other distributor I could name.
Not to say that I haven’t seen complaints from other retailers about them, so maybe I’ve just been exceptionally lucky. As such, I don’t know if they’re “doing” anything about these problems or not, at least not directly. Really, the only problem I tend to have with Lunar is timeliness of shipments, but that seems to be more a FedEx issue. Even then, that’s not been too much of a hassle.
Okay pals, I’ve reached the end of my blogging time for the evening…will be back Friday with yet more prediction shenanigans! (And also contribute to the 2022 predictions right here!) Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time.
